CHAPTER II 



THE CLASSES OF WEEDS, AND HOW THEY ARE 

 SPREAD 



" Slack neuer thy weeding, for dearth nor for cheap, 

 the corne shall reward it, yer euer ye reape." 



THOMAS TUSSER, Five Hundreth Pointes of 

 Husbandrie^ 1557. 



IT will now be our purpose to consider the classes of 

 weeds and the manner in which they are distributed. 

 We may usefully regard weeds as divisible into three 

 classes, Annuals, Biennials, and Perennials, and an un- 

 derstanding as to what these terms mean and the 

 principles they involve will be of use in enabling us 

 the more successfully to combat weeds. 



Annuals are plants which grow from seed which is, 

 in general, produced the year before, and they attain 

 maturity, produce flowers and seeds, and die the same 

 season. Among annual weeds may be mentioned 

 Poppies, Charlock, Corn Cockle, Spurrey, Groundsel, 

 Clover Dodder, Cleavers. Some plants, such as Chick- 

 weed and Groundsel, which are capable of producing 

 several generations in one season, are frequently termed 

 ephemerals. 



Biennials include all plants which grow from seed 

 and complete their life cycle in two seasons. The 

 first year they spend in establishing themselves in the 

 soil, and in the second year produce flowers and seeds 

 and then die. In any season therefore will be found 

 plants of one year's and of two years' growth, the 

 former being immature, while the latter at the right 



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